Bright Lights

Bright.

Too Bright.

What is that?

Where… Where am I?

My vision hasn't fully recovered from being awoken by bright lights, but I can clearly tell that I've been bound.

Just what the hell is this anyway, the last thing I remember was falling asleep as soon as I saw the alluring bed last night.

This room, this isn't my bedroom, nor is it anything remotely similar to what was within the motel.

"Where the hell…"

The man assigned to training us for this month was standing there in the doorway with that damn flashlight beaming into my eyes, what was the meaning of this?

"You're finally up, now, we can start."

"What? Why am I tied up?!"

"Don't worry, you're not the only one, all of you are tied up."

This can't be happening…

"Sup…" Alex said, in the corner of my eye, also zip tied the same way I was.

"How long have we been here?!"

"This looks like something out of a horror movie!" Father shouted, once again stating the obvious, sometimes I believe he does that just to toy with me, I'm still not completely sure yet.

"I'll leave you all to it—I'll be right outside the room and you all have until sunrise to get out of this room—If you don't—You Fail—and will be sent back to IJA Headquarters"

What is this, is this guy nuts or something? Has he lost his mind? He can't do this, can he?

"What other option do you have though, you have to take him seriously, after all he is the proctor of this mission…" Father said, yet again confirming the bluntly obvious, something that I didn't want to harshly admit to myself right away.

"Good luck."

And just like that, the teacher left the room, and made sure to lock the door as he left, what the hell is this?

Who wants to be woken up to something like this, finding themselves tied up and being informed that this is necessary?

Just how the hell did this guy get into our rooms last night?

"Well, he could have made extra keys, son." Thanks, dad, thanks again, I guess we don't have time to waste.

"You guys got any plans?"

We're stuck in here, might as well work together.

The room looked like a room where you keep a furnace, bland and pipes everywhere, the only thing in it was us and a table with stuff on it.

"First, we'll need to get out of these restraints." Vivian said.

"How?... and we don't even know when sunrise will be…" Kaso replied.

"He's right, there are no windows in this room... sunrise can be in thirty minutes for all we know." Olivia replied, only making this more difficult than it has to be.

Then suddenly, Anastasia acted without saying a word, she swiftly pulled her legs through the restraints, making it so her hands weren't behind her back, she made this seem like something she could've done in her sleep.

She stood up, still not saying a single word as she was doing all this, has she forgotten that we're a team?

"Hey, help us get out too." as soon as I finished, she glanced at me with disgust, as if I had done the most heinous crimes to her or her loved ones, just what the hell was with that look anyway?

She walked towards the table and disregarded what I said, what nerve, as if group one meant nothing to her, she was simply just saving her own ass.

"Hey, you can't just leave us here." she continued on, ignoring me yet again, as she grasped something of the table and cut her binds. There were knives on the table.

"You can help yourselves…" Anastasia softly said as she tossed one of the knives halfway to us bound against the wall.

I believe that was the first time I heard her voice… she sat down beside the door and glared at us, as if she said what are you waiting for with her eyes alone.

"I'll wait." She said softly.

She's really only going to help herself here, why did I even expect her to help us in the first place?

"Well, she did help you guys a bit by throwing the knife closer." Father said.

By this point, I expected a comment like that from him of all people.

It was now up to us whether we were going to accept her half-ass help or not, might as well make the best of it and not get pissed off over something we have no control of.

If we want to make it back at the end of the month, we'll have to get through this, and plenty more after this.

"Alright, Vivian, you need to get your hands out from behind your back."

"What? Why me?" Vivian asked, I'm sure she knew why but didn't want to hear it, but only if she had my father constantly in her head, she would've acted by now without questioning what I had to say.

"You're the smallest one here so it should be the easiest for you to do what Ana just did."

"No."

"What?!" What the hell is she arguing for, we all want to get out of here, don't we?

"He has a point… it should be the easiest way for you." Alex added, thinking clearly unlike Vivian right now.

"Stop being so difficult and just do it so we don't fail."

"Fine…" Vivian put her restrained arms in front of her as easy as Anastasia did, as if she could've done it without having us telling her to do so.

"That looked too easy…" Alex said.

"Kick over the knife." Vivian asked, clearly directing her demands at me, the closest one to the knife.

I didn't defy her demands, even though it would've been bittersweet had I done so, I just want to get out of here, and I'm sure everyone else wants that just as much as I do.

She halted the knife from sliding past her with her foot, and eventually cut through her restraints easily.

One down, now she just has to cut the rest of us free so we can all get out of here before sunrise.

"Alright, you guys are next." Vivian said, heading towards the closest person to her, which was Olivia.

"We'll be out of here in no time." Olivia said.

Then, out of nowhere, something shot straight at Vivian and cut through some of her hair as it barely missed her head and stuck into the wall. It was the second knife from the table.

"Don't help them." Anastasia said, making it known it was her who had just thrown the knife.

"Are you crazy?!" Vivian shouted, clearly a little shaken as she almost was hit with a knife in her head.

"Why can't she help us?" Olivia asked, the obvious question that ran through all of our heads once Anastasia objected to Vivian helping us.

"We're all here for a reason… What if you were in this situation without any teammates, shouldn't you know what to do as a professional agent." Anastasia said.

"Yeah, but shouldn't we use all the help we can get?" Vivian asked.

Olivia looked as if she wanted to say something, but chose not to, forever holding it in, appeared to be stuck within her own thoughts on what to do if she were in this situation alone.

I didn't fall that deep down the hole just yet, I just wanted to get the hell out of here, whether it be through Vivian's help or not.

"Are you really going to sit there and wait for your team, what if they're all dead and it's just you left? If you can't do something as easy as this——you don't deserve to be an agent." Anastasia said.

"Dammit—she has a point…" Vivian said.

What the hell ever happened to teamwork, at this rate, I'm not sure if we'll make it out of here before sunrise.

"What? But isn't the whole point of this exercise teamwork?"

"Yeah… but she's right, shouldn't we all know what to do in a situation like this by now?" Alex said.

As he finished, Vivian walked over to Anastasia and stood there, as if there were two sides to this argument.

"You guys have to do this yourselves." Vivian said.

Are you serious… since when did group one become a group where every man fended for themselves. Vivian was our whole plan of making this much easier than it had to be.

"This is where you usually come up with a Plan B, son." hmph… I hate it when you're right, which apparently is all the time.

In order for me to get out of these restraints, I'll have to get closer to Olivia, a simple roll or two could make that happen.

If I want to improve, this should be nothing more than a short obstacle.

Once I finish the roll, that would look outlandishly foolish in the process, I should be able to stand. The knife on the wall can be used to cut the zip tie that bound my arms behind my back.

"I have to prove to myself that I can become an excellent agent… If I have to do this alone, so be it… I didn't work this hard just to fail here! I must get better to achieve my goal!"

An impactful slam against the wall, and a quick shimmy, broke my arms free from the restraints.

I admit, this may have been a little over the top, but nonetheless, it worked. And it's the truth, I can't fail in something like this if I want to be able to find the one responsible for your death, I can't give up now, I won't lose to something like this.

"Wow! You actually used Anastasia's attack to your advantage!" Father shouted.

"Yuki, you're a genius!" Olivia shouted.

"Really… I didn't think it was that hard…"

Just a little motivation to do something for myself rather than depend on teamwork, which should be the case for something like this in the first place.

This challenge is nothing more than a small obstacle, and I must become an agent, so if I must do more than needed, so be it.